Reward for thrifty pensioners

A MAJOR advertising campaign to encourage retired people to claim the new Pension Credit was launched today.

The credit, which comes in on October 6, aims to reward people who have made modest savings for their retirement.

The Government estimates about half the eight million pensioner households will be eligible for the credit, gaining an extra £400 a year on average.

So far about 2.1 million households have registered to receive it. The Government has set a target of having three million households claim it by 2006.

The ad campaign features pensioners at coffee mornings, allotments and in the street seeing money and being told to 'pick it up, it's yours'. It is part of a wider £17 million campaign to encourage take up, including a mail shot to every pensioner household.

There are two elements to the pension credit, a minimum income guarantee and an additional payment which rewards people according to their savings.

A single pensioner with an income of about £139 a week will get up to £14 extra, while couples with £203 a week will get an additional £19.

Charity Help the Aged said it supported the new credit, which will cost the Government about £2.5 billion, but warned that it was 'ferociously difficult to understand'.

It said: 'The Pension Credit is totally over-engineered - the Forth Bridge of welfare provision. It would be so much simpler and fairer to boost basic state pension to the Minimum Income Guarantee level, which could still be done with modest extra costs, allowing the dismantling of the spider's web of Pension Credit with no losers.'

To claim the Pension Credit people should call 0800 99 1234, where an adviser will fill in the form for them over the phone.